Gretchen at the spinning wheel lyrics

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Applied Humanities

Learning to Hear Hearing Schubert By Alisha Nypaver 1 Module One: Introduction to the Humanities / Page 1.4.2 Hearing Schubert On this page: 0 of 4 attempted (0%) | 0 of 1 correct (0%) Objective: Use the strategies identified on the previous page to evaluate a musical work by Franz Schubert.

Now that you’ve been introduced to the basic strategies for analyzing musical works, we’re going to walk through an example.

Apply Strategies for Evaluating Musical Works

On this page, you will analyze a musical work using the strategies outlined on the previous page. Be sure to download the detailed description of the music—it might help you with your analysis.

Let’s put some of our advanced listening techniques into practice as we explore an 1814 work by the composer Franz Schubert. This version is performed by the soprano Marina Rebeka and the pianist Giulio Zappa.

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YouTube video. https://youtu.be/d9ClvNQEc28. Uploaded May 1, 2012, by Rosenblatt Recitals. For a detailed description of the music and the original lyrics, follow the

transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

First Listen: Impressions

Before you learn anything about the piece, listen to it first and consider these questions:

What emotion do you think the composer is trying to convey? Does the emotion change at any point? Does the piece have a climax? If so, where? Do any sections of the piece repeat? What do you think the piece could be about?

Response Board What emotion do you think the composer is trying to convey?

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Second Listen: Contextualization

Compositional Context

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Marina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am SpinnradeMarina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am Spinnrade

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Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was a composer who was known for writing art songs, also called lieder, which are short songs written for a solo vocalist with piano accompaniment. Schubert composed this particular art song when he was only 17 years old. The translation of this song title is “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel,” and the lyrics are based on the story of Faust as it was told by playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In the story, Faust has made a deal with the devil. While the devil is on earth, he will help Faust get anything he wants; in return, Faust must be the devil’s eternal servant in hell. If at any point Faust is completely happy, he will instantly die, losing his immortal soul. One of the things that Faust wants is a young woman named Gretchen, the title character of the song. The devil helps Faust seduce Gretchen, who falls madly in love with him—literally. Her obsession with Faust starts to make her insane, even driving her to drug her mother with a sleeping potion so that she is able to spend more alone time with Faust. In a tragic turn of events, the potion is too strong and ends up killing the mother, which takes a heavy toll on Gretchen’s mental health. This song captures a moment in the story when Gretchen (alone and quite possibly already pregnant with Faust’s child) begins to succumb to a mad obsession.

Cultural Context

In 19th-century Europe, the parlor had become the center of family life. Remember, at this point in time all music had to be performed live, so there was a demand for musical instruments for home use. There was also an increased emphasis on musical education for children so that music could be created and enjoyed whenever it was desired. The Industrial Revolution had allowed for the mass production of pianos, making them more affordable than ever for upper-middle-class families. The piano quickly rose to prominence as the preferred parlor instrument, as it was relatively easy to play and functioned well both as a solo instrument and as a vocal accompaniment. This trend created a demand for new music that could be easily learned and played for in-home entertainment.

Schubert premiered his songs by playing them at house parties called salons. His tunes were catchy, and with a difficulty level appropriate for intermediate musicians, they were ideal for the musical members of middle- to upper-class Viennese society. Many of Schubert’s lieder are set to poems and plays by Goethe, a very popular writer at the time. As Schubert’s reputation grew, he was able to earn a living by selling copies of his music for home performances, which further increased his fame throughout Vienna and beyond.

Multiple-Choice Question

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In music (as in visual art), it’s reasonable to ask, “Why this subject?” In light of the compositional and cultural context, why was Schubert writing short works for piano and voice based on the writings of Goethe?

Schubert hoped to establish a creative partnership with Goethe by composing music based on his writings. Schubert hoped to increase awareness of issues surrounding mental illness, which went largely untreated in Vienna at the time. Goethe was a popular author, and people were buying sheet music for piano and voice. Goethe was the author most favored by the Viennese royalty, whose patronage Schubert sought.

Historical Context

Schubert is generally classified as a composer of the early Romantic era. A European cultural movement that dominated much of the 19th century, Romanticism encouraged artists to push boundaries and create new modes of expression in the arts. There was an increased emphasis on depth of emotion and the exploration of more socially taboo subjects, both of which are reflected in this song. Gretchen is alone and pregnant out of wedlock, struggling to understand and cope with her feelings, all the while sinking into insanity. She doesn’t understand why Faust behaves the way he does, because she doesn’t know that her lover’s soul belongs not to her, but to the devil.

Art songs like this were fairly typical for the time, but here are two things that make Schubert’s song stand out:

1. Most composers who wrote German art songs, or lieder, thought of the piano strictly as an accompaniment instrument—a backdrop for the real star, the singer. Schubert found clever ways to use the piano to supplement the lyrics and add depth to the musical narrative, making the piano a star of its own.

2. Despite being fairly young when he wrote many of his most famous songs, Schubert was able to express a wide variety of human emotions. He was only 17 when he wrote “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” but he expertly captures both the thrill of being in love and the despairing certainty that the love is doomed—and does it from the perspective of a pregnant young woman!

Schubert’s insightful ability to recreate Gretchen’s emotional state through music makes the character come alive. The song still appeals to many listeners today and is

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even more popular now than it was when Schubert wrote it. The use of the piano as an integral part of the story makes Schubert’s art song particularly appealing to pianists, who are often relegated to a stricter accompaniment role. The melodies lend themselves nicely to dramatic interpretation, which is appealing to singers as well. Many people can empathize with Gretchen’s feelings of being hopelessly in love, which creates an emotional connection between the character and the audience.

With this in mind, listen to the piece again. Imagine that you are in a 19th-century parlor, enjoying this performance as after-dinner entertainment. Pay attention to how the music reflects the story, and notice how the piano contributes to the telling of that story.

YouTube video. https://youtu.be/d9ClvNQEc28. Uploaded May 1, 2012, by Rosenblatt Recitals. For a detailed description of the music and the original lyrics, follow the

transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Response Board What did you hear during this second listen that you didn’t notice during the first pass?

No response saved yet.

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Marina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am SpinnradeMarina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am Spinnrade

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Third Listen: Analysis

As we listen to this song again, let’s identify the six musical elements described on the previous page.

Timbre

This song is written for a female vocalist with a high pitch range, known as a soprano, and a piano.

Texture

There are two layers in this song. The singer has the melody and the pianist plays harmony to accompany her. Melodies make up those memorable, “catchy” parts of music that draw your ear, while harmonies function as support for the melody.

Pitch

Composers often use the element of pitch to highlight important words in the lyrics, create a musical climax, and provide musical variety. The most dramatic use of pitch in this song comes when Gretchen starts to think about her lover. As she reminisces about his physical characteristics, the pitch climbs higher and higher, building to a climax on the word “kiss,” which is set to one of the highest pitches of the whole song. Schubert clearly wants us to pay attention to that word!

Rhythm

The piano plays a steady rhythmic accompaniment that consists of a circular pattern with an occasional lower “bum-bum” sound. Schubert, who always made the piano an integral part of the story, intended for the instrument to represent Gretchen’s spinning wheel. The circular pattern is the motion of the wheel, and the lower “bum-bum” sound is the clicking of the foot pedal that keeps the wheel in motion. However, things aren’t always as simple as they seem. Schubert often created multiple levels of meaning in his songs, and so the circular motion can also be understood as a symbolic reflection of Gretchen’s fragile mental state as her racing thoughts drag her down into madness.

Because most of the piece is propelled by this steady rhythm, it is startling when the rhythm abruptly stops after the climactic “kiss.” Gretchen has descended so far into her daydream that she forgets what she was doing, and the spinning wheel stands idle for a moment before she comes back to reality. We can hear her struggle as she slowly starts it up again.

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The overall speed of the piece (which is called the tempo) is another facet of rhythm. In this song, the tempo undergoes two significant changes. First, it accelerates before the emotional climax of the piece in the middle as the music builds to the word “kiss.” The increased tempo reflects Gretchen’s excitement as she recalls the things she loves about Faust, much like the excitement people feel when they fall in love. The second change comes when the tempo slows down at the end of the piece, symbolizing a return to reality—Gretchen is alone, and is slowly coming to grips with the fact that she won’t have the happy life she still imagines for herself.

Dynamics

If you were to look at the sheet music for this piece, you would notice the letters pp and f and symbols that look like this: < and >. These are dynamic markings that tell the performers how loudly or quietly to play and sing. The p means “soft” (pp means “really soft”), while the f means “loud.” The < means to get gradually louder, and the > means to get gradually softer. The piece starts off rather softly, which sets the stage for two really dramatic moments of the piece that are created by the combination of high pitches and loud dynamics. Both of these high points center around the word “kiss.” The first comes at the climax in the middle of the song as Gretchen sings, “Ah, his kiss!” and the second occurs near the end of the song as she repeats the words “If I could only kiss him as I want to! With his kisses, I could die!” The use of this loud dynamic level shows the depth of Gretchen’s passion, although it is tinged with despair.

Form

The main melody (introduced by the words “My peace is gone, my heart is heavy”) repeats several times throughout the piece, becoming a constant refrain that reflects Gretchen’s deteriorating mental state. After two verses with the same melody, the music changes, assuming a more hopeful tone as Gretchen begins listing the physical attributes she likes about her lover. Up until that point, the music had been in a minor key. “Minor” is a musical mode that is often associated with sadness or negative emotions. However, when she starts thinking about her lover, the music changes to major, projecting a more positive and optimistic outlook, only to return to the darkness of minor at the end. The piece ends as it began, with Gretchen’s sad and despairing lament: “My peace is gone, my heart is heavy... I’ll never find peace again.”

Listen to the piece again, focusing on hearing these different musical elements. You may have to play it a few times to hear them all.

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YouTube video. https://youtu.be/d9ClvNQEc28. Uploaded May 1, 2012, by Rosenblatt Recitals. For a detailed description of the music and the original lyrics, follow the

transcript link below.

Read Text Transcript

Response Board During this third listen, and with the help of the analysis above, what did you hear that wasn’t apparent to you before?

No response saved yet.

close

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Marina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am SpinnraMarina Rebeka - SCHUBERT Gretchen am Spinnra……

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